JFGO awards $52K in collaborative grants

The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando (JFGO) recently awarded more than $50,000 in community collaborative grants to local Jewish organizations and synagogues. The grants are designed to encourage and promote collaboration in the Jewish community and to support programs and services that enrich Jewish life in Orlando.

To qualify for a grant, at least two agencies, synagogues or organizations must work together to develop and submit a proposal and implement a program. In addition, the programs or services must be open to the entire Jewish community of Greater Orlando regardless of religious affiliation, synagogue or agency membership.

JFGO’s Grants Committee, which reviewed all the grant proposals, was co-chaired by Dr. Maxine Silverman Rosenthal and Maura Weiner. The committee submitted its recommendations to the Federation’s Board of Directors, which approved the grants.

Grants were awarded to Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando for holiday meal deliveries to the elderly; the RIDE (Reliable Independent Drivers for the Elderly) program, which provides round-trip rides to medical appointments for elderly or disabled adults; and the Community Rabbi program, a long-time collaboration between JFS and Hospice of the Comforter. In addition to providing hospice services, Rabbi Arnie Siegel is a source of pastoral support to unaffiliated and needy community members.

JFGO awarded grants to support three community-wide events:

• A community-wide Shabbat retreat at a local campsite, which will be a collaborative effort between Federation’s Jewish Teen Education Network and educational and youth directors from Congregation Ohev Shalom, Congregation of Reform Judaism, Temple Israel, Congregation Beth Am, Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation, Temple Shir Shalom and the local chapter of BBYO.

• In November, several synagogue men’s clubs will present Men’s Night Out, an evening of food, fun and brotherhood in support of Jewish youth programs. Read more at http://www.jfgo.org/MNO.

• The Roth Family and Rosen JCCs will bring the community together to celebrate Israel’s 70th birthday next spring.

Other local initiatives receiving grants:

• An intergenerational program by The Jewish Pavilion, “From Generation to Generation,” will bring together seniors with students from the Jewish Academy of Orlando, synagogue religious schools and youth groups for one-on-one and group intergenerational experiences.

• Temple Israel and Temple Shir Shalom will bring together middle- and high-school students for social interactions and to build a better understanding of Jewish diversity in our community.

• The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center (HMREC) received a grant in support of Orlando’s first production of Brundibar, a children’s opera written in 1938 by Hans Krasa. This production, an HMREC collaboration with Opera Orlando and Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra, will be performed at the Rosen JCC in commemoration of Kristallnacht this fall.